In 1969, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was not especially well known or commercially successful, despite having already published five novels and two short story collections. The publication of Slaughterhouse Five in that year marked Vonnegut's artistic and commercial breakthrough. Based on Vonnegut's own experiences as a World War IT prisoner who witnessed the Allied firebombing of Dresden, Ger­many, Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pil­grim, a man who has come "unstuck in time." With­out any forewarning, he finds himself suddenly transported to other points in time in his own past or future. In chronicling the extraordinary events that happen to Billy, from witnessing the Dresden firebombing to being kidnapped by aliens, Slaugh­terhouse-Five summarizes many of the themes of Vonnegut's work. These include the dangers of unchecked technology, the limitations of human ac­tion in a seemingly random and meaningless uni­verse, and the need for people, adrift in an indif­ferent world, to treat one another with kindness and decency. Almost thirty years after its initial publi­cation, Slaughterhouse-Five remains Vonnegut's most discussed and widely admired novel.